AiRM 2012

AiRM 2012 exhibited new commissions made from an Open Call Out to creatives living and working in the South East. The selected artists were invited to respond to the location, history, landscape and architecture of Romney Marsh. AiRM also funded a film and sound collaboration between the cellist Bela Emerson and Toby Tatum. This commission evolved from the huge response to Bela’s performance in 2011, she played to an enraptured audience Bela's solo performances are intense and exhilarating.

Using an array of electronics, pedals and effects that take the cello way beyond its usual sphere, Bela builds layers of rhythm and sound not just from strings and bow, but from every bit of the instrument. Sounds are looped, take on lives of their own, bounce off each other, drop in and out. Her work presented inside an ancient church with a screening of a film entitled The Secret Places of a Hidden God made for an exceptional centre piece to AiRM2012.

2012 artists were Rosalind Barker, David Drey, Bela Emerson, Michael Healy,
Nova Marshall, Ruth Martindale, Aya Mouri, Anne Parfitt, Shelley Parker, Cathy Rogers,
Julian Rowe, Grace Siregar, Toby Tatum, Sally Waterman and Julian Walker.